Swimming With Slickribbons
Swimming With Slickribbons is the nineteenth episode of [[The Future Is Wild (animated series)|the animated series The Future Is Wild]]. It was first broadcast on Discovery Kids on 10 May 2008. The episode is set in the Central Desert of 200 million AD and prominently features the slickribbon, being the only episode in which it and the gloomworm appear. Synopsis The crew can't leave the Central Desert until they wash the Time Flyer. Also, a tough slickribbon named Philo who wants "a meal with a challenge" gets more than he bargained for when he chases a miniaturized Luis in the flooded Time Flyer. Plot C.G. and the crew try to leave the Central Desert of 200 million AD, of which they struggle to find anything positive to say, but discover that the ship is malfunctioning because the sandstorms have jammed up its internal systems. As the Time Flyer cannot clean itself, Ethan and C.G. drill a hole into the ground until they find an underground reservoir. Emily hears splashing and suspects there is something down there, worrying Luis, but the others hear nothing. In the reservoir, gloomworms are hunted by a pair of slickribbons, Philo and Polly. Philo, who wants "a meal with a challenge", begins to chase a garden worm, but is disturbed by C.G. and Ethan drilling into the roof of the cavern. Having never seen sunlight before, Philo tries to attack the brighter patch of water, and is thus accidentally sucked up against the mouth of the hose when the crew siphons water out of the reservoir, resulting in the hose becoming blocked up. To clear the blockage, the crew miniaturises Luis with the molecular compressor and sends him down the hose to investigate. He reaches the edge of the hole, which is a sheer drop, and accidentally falls down when Ethan yells down the end of the hose. He lands on Philo, unblocking the hose, but also ends up in the reservoir water, where the slickribbon immediately begins to chase him. Luis manages to restart the hose, sucking himself back up to the desert, but Philo is also sucked in again - this time vertically, which allows him to move up the hose and follow Luis. Meanwhile, C.G. and Emily encounter a garden worm, which flees down a hole in the sand. Wanting to study these animals, they go into the desert to try and find more, leaving Ethan to watch the ship and Squibby, who escapes, leaving the rooftop hatch open. C.G. and Emily return to the ship when Luis fails to answer his communicator. With the Time Flyer's hatch open, Luis, Philo, and several gallons of water are ejected into the ship's control room, where the InfoStation identifies Philo as a slickribbon. Luis shelters on the control panel and calls for help with his Communicator, but the water level is rising rapidly, and he ends up having to try and swim away whilst hiding behind pieces of furniture. Emily turns the hose off, stopping the ship from further flooding (and inadvertently stopping Luis from reaching the ladder), and Ethan, defending himself from Philo with Squibby's frisbee, goes in through the roof hatch to try and manually open the floor hatch and drain the ship. Luis distracts Philo by grabbing hold of his back and riding him around the flooded room, but soon returns to his normal size, allowing him to open the floor hatch and drain the water, and Philo, into the desert. Afterwards, Luis drops Philo down the hole and back into the reservoir, where he tells a sceptical Polly about his experience. Humbled, he goes back to hunting slow, easy gloomworms. The crew dries out the ship and cleans its exterior, but before they can leave, they have to retrieve Squibby's frisbees. Cast *Ashley Peters as C.G. *Miranda Jones as Emily *Marc Donato as Ethan *Taylor Abrahamse as Luis *Richard Binsley as Squibbon *Cleo Tellier as Polly, a slickribbon *Blair Williams as Narrator Appearances Characters *Luis *Ethan *Squibbon *Emily *C.G. Organisms *Squibbon *Terabyte (cameo) *Gloomworm *Slickribbon *Garden worm Times & places *200 million AD *Pangaea II *Central Desert *Global Ocean (mentioned) Notes *The Global Ocean, which never actually appears in the cartoon series, is mentioned in this episode when the Time Flyer's malfunctioning navigation system announces that the ship has entered submarine mode, and is submerged in the Global Ocean. *The slickribbons are here depicted as sexually dimorphic; Philo, the male, looks like the slickribbon seen in the documentary, whilst Polly, the female, has pink colouration on her extremities. *On IMDb, both Stacey DePass and Cleo Tellier receive credits for voicing Polly. *"Swimming With Slickribbons" is chronologically the nineteenth episode of The Future Is Wild. Navigation Category:Animated series episodes Category:Animated series Category:200 million AD